What I want: a Skype “phone” I can give to my daughter which is battery powered and lets her talk to her grandparents and — in future — her cousins.
Up to five buttons, one for each person. When they’re online, the button glows green. When you’re talking to that person, it glows red. Press the button to connect and disconnect. Press multiple buttons for a conference call between all grandparents. Totally under the initiative of your kid, no parents needed. Incoming calls? Probably not, or at least a parent-selectable option (naturally, only from pre-approved buddies). Auto power-off after 5 mins of relative silence.
Provisioned either remotely or via USB. Client could be running on an always-on PC and using the Skype API — doesn’t need local compute power, just ability to communicate button presses and 2-way audio. Bluetooth would do if it wasn’t a hopelessly crippled “smart network” standard. Maybe even just a slightly hacked version of DECT or FRS radio technology instead. Should be tumbling out of Chinese factory for $10-15 or less. Retail for $80-100 this year, $49.99 in Costco next year, $29.99 in Wal-Mart year after. (Uniden can sell me 2 cordless phones and a base station for $80 at retail right now, and Wal-Mart 2 FRS radios for $8. This is a high-margin device in year 1.)
Device is not for holding to the head — mama won’t like that. Just a speakerphone-like device that sits on the floor.
The paradox: you get more value by not being able to initiate calls to any phone in the world. Less is more.
I don’t want a smartphone for Christmas. I want a Fisher Price phone that works.
There’s still time. Anyone dare?
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A Child's Phone That Actually Works from The Importance of...
Telepocalypse has an interesting idea for a Fisher-Price style child's phone that actually works, thanks to Skype (Baby Babble).Up to five buttons, one for each person. When they’re online, the button glows green. When you’re talking to that person, it...
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Toys voor kleine boys en girls from ICT en Onderwijs BLOG
"What I want: a Skype "phone" I can give to my daughter which is battery powered and lets her talk to her grandparents and - in future - her cousins." (bron) Heel aardig wensenlijstje van Martin Ge...
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Nobody makes children's toys which actually work. Otherwise we'd see a <$50 digital camera with USB and and LCD -- just in pink instead of silver.
Why they don't, I have no ******* clue.
Posted by: at June 9, 2005 01:30 AMSuch a device would not be interesting for only children. What the market tends to forget is the large market of mentally disabled (I'm the father of one, 24 years old). Many of them, like my son, are quite able to to call and be called - only they can't cope with numbers and written language.
A programmable 'few buttons' phone, skype or even GSM, would be a wondrous empowering thing to them (and their parents as well...). And 'them' is quite a few million potential customers in the western world alone.
Doing this over Skype or similar would certainly help reduce my phone bill. My two year old son figured out some time ago that he can usually get Mum by hitting "redial" on my cellphone, including (especially) when she's away at international conferences.
Posted by: at June 9, 2005 11:39 AMHave you considered building one out of a cheap bluetooth headset? You could certainly get a phone that called a single target pretty easily - the host PC would just have to listen to the headset's COM port. Cut the headset open, wire a nice toy button in instead of the trendy clickers those things usually have, and put it all in a bit plastic box. There'd be the small matter of writing the software, but since Skype released their API I guess that couldn't be too hard.
How about making the buttons square transparent ones with a light behind and a slot that a passport-sized photo would fit into? Photo is dark = not available, Photo lit up = available.
I'll buy one too! So we have defined a market segment - notorious bloggers with kids under 5. That has to be a defensible niche!
Posted by: at June 10, 2005 09:51 PMThere actually was one of these phones several years ago, (over 15 yrs ago). I saw it in a catalogue that I received from a company. It had 3 programmable buttons, in the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow. One phone number per colored button. They were large buttons for a child. The phone actually worked. I don't believe it could receive calls. I'm sorry now that I never bought it, but at the time, I had no use for it. I thought it was a cool phone for little children to have so they could actually call someone, like both sets grandparents, and a favorite aunt; or whoever's phone number you programmed into it. I just emailed the company to see if they still had that phone, but unfortunately they do not. I can't even remember what the phone was called, I just remember what it looked like. It's a shame when something good comes around, it never catches on, or they just decide to discontinue it and no one wants to sell it. Now that I have grandchildren, I want them to have this phone.
Posted by: at September 21, 2005 09:21 PM